When sharing my builds, I am often asked how I am able to realistically recreate landscapes in Minecraft. In this guide, I describe my basic process for importing maps -- now streamlined through a good deal of trial and error. This technique allows you to easily have scale schematics at your fingertips, great for building towns, parks, or nearly anything you can think of.
If you find this guide helpful or use it to make some cool builds, let me know: I would love to see them!

Happy building!
  -Solar

P.S. This guide is several months old at the time of publishing here -- in the intervening time I have been studying other emerging tools and workflows for achieving similar results. I may release an updated version of this guide in the future.